lying or lay which is correct

[BJoeR]

They walked down from City Hall to ground zero. There were cars burning and bodies lying (lay) on the street.

[birdeen's call]

What do you think and why?

[Raymott]

They walked down from City Hall to ground zero. There were cars burning and bodies lying (lay) on the street.

It depends on whether "There were" is meant to carry over. The following are all correct:
There were cars burning and [there were] bodies lying on the street.
There were cars burning and [there were] bodies laid on the street. (Somebody had laid them there)
There were cars burning, and bodies lay on the street. (past tense of "Bodies lie on the street).

to lie (vi): lie, lay, lain, lying
to lay (vt): lay, laid, laid, laying

However, it's quite possible that many New Yorkers use "lay" for "lie", which is based on a common mistake.

[TheParser]

They walked down from City Hall to ground zero. There were cars burning and bodies lying (lay) on the street.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I believe that both sentences are grammatically correct.

(2) Teachers tell us to forget "there" when we analyze a "there" sentence.

(3) So I think we have a choice:

(A) Cars were burning and bodies were lying in the street.

(B) Cars were burning, and bodies lay in the street.

(4) Do you notice that (A) has two -ing forms, and

(B) has one -ing form and one past form?

(5) I think that writing teachers tell us learners to maintain parallelism in

our sentences. That is, balance.

(6) In your opinion, which combination sounds more balanced and more

pleasant to the ears? were burning and were lying / were burning and

lay.

(7) In my opinion, sentence (A) is more balanced. (I am not saying that I

am right.)